Track of the Moment: NO LOVE DEEP WEB by Death Grips

 Wait, is this a timely review? Oh god, I’m setting a bad precedent, aren’t I. When the newest stuff we do is from 3 weeks ago (even then, it’s not “new”, per say), we don’t do timely stuff. Other than that one time. But I’m only doing this in a coy attempt to show that I put a lot of work into getting this article out as soon as I humanly can, god and internet god willing.

Now, you might remember the fact that I profiled Death Grips a while back. I know you do, because it keeps popping up over on the right side over there. So don’t worry, it won’t be one of my usual, long posts filled with background info. It’ll just be one of my long articles filled with hyperlinks to random stuff, because I like to put work into stuff no one cares about. Why else do you think I write for this blog?

This album is mildly disturbing. Normally, this would be a bad thing. But this is Death Grips, and it should be really fucking disturbing (that’s the official term). They really toned down the noise part of their noise-rap by cleaning up their production. They used an actual recording studio, not iPhones or whatever on previous albums, taking away that delightful low-fi homemade sound. And they didn’t have as much experimentation with samples and melodic synth riffs as they usually do, but there is still some decent riffs and Zach Hill really shows off how good at drumming he is. And their skill with producing memorable and catchy hooks have faded, although there are still some gems in there (“I got some shit to say, just for the fuck of it”).

Don't jump! You have so many more things to incoherently yell at us!

On top of that, they changed up their sound. It’s not major – you can still tell it’s MC Ride and the rest of the crew, but it’s a bit more tame. They seem to take a lot of influence from bands like Suicide (ironically, you want to do just that if you try to listen to them), Teenage Jesus and the Jerks, and DNA. For those of you who aren’t friends with the bands and therefore don’t know who they are, those are No Wave bands, which focuses more on “musical textures over melodies”. If that sounds appealing, please, put away the meth. Walter White’s run is almost over. No need to keep funding him. That isn’t to say that they’re completely No Wave; they still have some great metal/hip-hop drums and angry lyrics and interesting synths, but they just don’t come out and have their way with your earholes like their previous 2 releases.

All of this is probably why they were mad at their label, on top of delaying its release. I have no idea if Epic Records made them do any of this, or they just did it themselves, but they definitely wanted to give their label the finger. They admit that the executives never heard of the tracks, they leaked it for free, and Epic shut down their website for a bit (they say they didn’t). Oh, the album art is an erect penis with the album name written on the penis in sharpie, making it nearly impossible to sell in stores or online. FYI, that link is not safe for work, and for those that clicked it and were surprised by the picture, Michael Bluth has had that same feeling.

If you can't figure out what the real album cover is based on this great replacement cover, you need to spend more time on the internet. Which is weird, because the only way you could find this blog if you spend too much time on the internet.

I can’t truly recommend this for old Death Grips fans. Yes, you should get it because it’s free, completes your collection, and is a big, waving, sharpie-covered dick to The Man. But it’s too calm and not angry enough for it to be your classic Death Grips, and it seems to take a lot of influence from No Wave to really make it interesting for Death Grips fans, or very interesting in general. It’s worth getting if only for the free aspect, but I’d have a hard time truly recommending it if it cost money. So get, try it out, worse comes to worse you delete it. It’s a solid effort and symbolizes everything Death Grips stand for, but it’s doesn’t reach the super lofty levels that The Money Store hit.

Oh, and if you’re in the Philly area, know that I’ll be seeing them on November 14^th. So if you want to party with me at what promises to be the most Death Grips-like show possible, be there. If you want to stalk me, or anyone else on the blog further, you can like the blog on Facebook.